Mumbai's BMC COVID-19 PPE, Mask and Jumbo Centre Procurement Scam
Under emergency powers during the pandemic, Mumbai's civic body spent roughly ₹1,050 crore in eight months on protective gear, masks, oxygen and jumbo COVID centres. The ED now alleges up to ₹4,000 crore of that emergency spending was routed through inexperienced, favoured vendors at inflated rates — a probe still open years later, with no conviction yet.
The Promise
“The BMC will use its emergency procurement powers during the pandemic to rapidly and transparently supply protective equipment, oxygen and COVID-care infrastructure to protect Mumbai's citizens and frontline workers.”
— Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, under Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and predecessors, Civic body responsible for Mumbai's pandemic response and emergency medical procurement · 1 April 2020
The BMC invoked emergency procurement provisions (bypassing standard tendering) to rapidly acquire PPE kits, N-95 masks, gloves, oxygen and to build 'jumbo' COVID care centres, spending over ₹1,050 crore in the pandemic's first eight months alone.
The Standard
Emergency medical and infrastructure procurement conducted at fair, auditable rates through competent, appropriately vetted vendors, even under relaxed pandemic-era tendering rules.
Public procurement norms permitting relaxed tendering only for genuine emergency need, with post-facto accountability for rates and vendor selection.
In force from 1 April 2020
The Reality
The Enforcement Directorate, investigating what is widely referred to as the 'Jumbo COVID Centre scam,' has expanded its probe beyond the original jumbo-centre construction contracts to cover the BMC's broader pandemic procurement, including PPE kits, gloves, masks, ventilators and oxygen supply, alleging irregularities across contracts worth an estimated ₹4,000 crore. It alleges purchases were made at inflated rates favouring select vendors with little or no prior relevant experience, based on WhatsApp chats and diaries recovered from middlemen allegedly linking bureaucrats, contractors and politicians. Separately, Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing has registered cases over specific pandemic purchases, including body bags bought at more than four times a reasonable rate and remdesivir vials procured at over double the market price. Senior IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal, BMC's pandemic-era additional municipal commissioner, was questioned by the ED for roughly ten hours in 2023. The CAG has separately flagged that the BMC failed to furnish complete records of its COVID-19 expenditure for audit. As of publication, the ED's investigation remains ongoing with no chargesheet publicly confirmed to have resulted in a conviction, and no court has made a final finding of guilt against any individual in the PPE/mask procurement strand specifically.
As of 25 June 2023
The Gap
Bars share a single zero-based scale. No axis truncation is used to exaggerate or minimize the gap between the two figures.
Money
Specific flagged sub-cases include body bags bought at roughly 4.5x a reasonable rate and 65,000 remdesivir vials bought at more than double market price (about ₹5.96 crore in alleged overcharge on that item alone). These are separate, smaller strands within the larger procurement probe.
Timeline
- AnnouncementBMC invokes emergency procurement
The civic body begins large-scale, relaxed-tender purchases of PPE kits, N-95 masks, gloves and other pandemic supplies.
- StatusBMC discloses ₹1,050 crore pandemic spend
Reporting shows the BMC spent over ₹1,050 crore in eight months, mostly on PPE kits, masks, gloves and face shields.
- AnnouncementJumbo COVID centre construction scam surfaces
Allegations emerge of inflated, favoured-vendor contracts for building BMC's jumbo COVID care centres, prompting an ED probe.
- StatusED attaches assets over jumbo centre contracts
The ED attaches assets worth over ₹12 crore linked to alleged fraud in setting up BMC-run jumbo COVID care centres.
- StatusFIR over body bags and remdesivir purchases
Mumbai's Economic Offences Wing books former mayor Kishori Pednekar and two BMC officials over allegedly overpriced body-bag and remdesivir purchases during the pandemic.
- MilestoneED widens probe to full pandemic procurement
The ED expands its investigation to cover BMC's broader COVID-era procurement of PPE kits, gloves, masks, ventilators and oxygen, estimating irregularities across ₹4,000 crore of contracts.
- StatusIAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal questioned
The BMC's pandemic-era additional municipal commissioner is questioned by the ED for around ten hours about payments processed under Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.
Legal Status
The ED's investigation into BMC's pandemic-era procurement, including PPE and mask purchases, remains open with no publicly confirmed chargesheet or conviction specific to this strand as of publication. A separate Mumbai Police EOW case over body-bag and remdesivir purchases has resulted in an FIR against a former mayor and two officials, but that too remains at the investigation/trial stage, not a concluded verdict.
Questioned by the ED for roughly ten hours in 2023; not reported as arrested or chargesheeted as of publication.
Named in an EOW FIR over alleged irregularities in COVID-19 body-bag procurement; case remains under investigation.
Verdict
There is credible, agency-backed evidence of large-scale overpricing in specific pandemic purchases (body bags, remdesivir) and an open, wide-ranging ED probe into the BMC's broader COVID procurement, but years after the alleged irregularities the investigation has not yet produced a chargesheet or conviction specific to PPE/mask procurement that this entry could verify. The scale of the ₹4,000 crore figure is the ED's own investigative estimate of scope, not a proven loss.
Reporting on this case is fragmented across several related but distinct strands (jumbo centres, body bags, remdesivir, the broader PPE/mask/oxygen probe), and this entry has not been able to confirm a single, unified chargesheet or verdict specific to N-95 mask or PPE-kit procurement. Confidence is marked low pending a clearer, more recent account of how these threads have resolved.
What remains incomplete
- No specific chargesheet or verdict focused narrowly on N-95 mask/PPE procurement (as opposed to the broader jumbo-centre and general pandemic-procurement probe) was identified in available reporting.
- The current (2025-2026) status of the ED's investigation and of the EOW's body-bag/remdesivir FIR has not been confirmed as of publication.
- This entry has not reviewed any ED prosecution complaint or CAG report directly; details rely on news coverage of them.
- It is unclear from available sources whether any individual has been arrested specifically in connection with PPE or N-95 mask procurement, as distinct from the jumbo-centre construction contracts.
Sources
Related investigations
The Amrapali Group Homebuyers Fraud
Amrapali Group took money from over 40,000 homebuyers for Noida and Greater Noida flats, then diverted thousands of crores of that money into unrelated ventures while construction stalled for years. The Supreme Court eventually cancelled the group's RERA registration and handed its projects to state-run NBCC to finish.
The Jaypee Infratech Insolvency and Homebuyers Case
Jaypee Infratech sold flats to over 20,000 homebuyers along the Yamuna Expressway, then defaulted on bank loans and entered insolvency in 2017. It took nearly seven years, a Supreme Court intervention, and two competing bidding rounds before the Suraksha Group finally took over the company in 2024 — with many buyers still waiting more than 15 years for possession.
The Unitech Group Homebuyers Fraud
Unitech collected over Rs 14,000 crore from nearly 30,000 homebuyers for flats it never finished, while a Supreme Court-ordered audit found its promoters had diverted thousands of crores abroad. The Chandra brothers spent years in jail, the government took over the company's board, and thousands of buyers are still waiting for their homes.